The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for information processing, a program, and a recording medium, and particularly to an apparatus and a method for information processing, a program, and a recording medium that make it possible to retrieve and edit image data and the like more easily.
Recently, use of metadata describing information on data of taken video material (the data will hereinafter be described also as material data) has been making progress in a field of production of video products such as TV programs, video contents and the like. Metadata is used to retrieve material data and edit the material data.
For effective use of metadata, compatibility of the metadata between a plurality of apparatus used in production of video products is required so that the metadata generated by a video signal recording apparatus such as a video camera, for example, can be used by a video signal reproducing apparatus such as an editing apparatus or the like.
Accordingly, standardization of a metadata description format has been under way in order to provide consistency in the description format and meanings of metadata. For example, MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) 7 has standardized a metadata description format by describing metadata using a highly versatile XML (extensible Markup Language).
However, even though metadata has been standardized, there is room left for each manufacturer to originally extend and describe metadata because concepts and objectives vary in practice among manufacturers that manufacture and sell video signal recording apparatus and video signal reproducing apparatus.